My Journey at the Nuclear Brink

My Journey at the Nuclear Brink is a continuation of William J. Perry's efforts to keep the world safe from a nuclear catastrophe. It tells the story of his coming of age in the nuclear era, his role in trying to shape and contain it, and how his thinking has changed about the threat these weapons pose. In a remarkable career, Perry has dealt firsthand with the changing nuclear threat. Decades of experience and special access to top-secret knowledge of strategic nuclear options have given Perry a unique, and chilling, vantage point from which to conclude that nuclear weapons endanger our security rather than securing it. This book traces his thought process as he journeys from the Cuban Missile Crisis, to crafting a defense strategy in the Carter Administration to offset the Soviets' numeric superiority in conventional forces, to presiding over the dismantling of more than 8,000 nuclear weapons in the Clinton Administration, and to his creation in 2007, with George Shultz, Sam Nunn, and Henry Kissinger, of the Nuclear Security Project to articulate their vision of a world free from nuclear weapons and to lay out the urgent steps needed to reduce nuclear dangers.

Biographies & Memoirs

Perry, William J.

Leaders & Notable People

Stanford University Press

William J. Perry and Ashton B. Carter, two of the world's foremost defense authorities, draw on their experience as leaders of the U.S. Defense Department to propose a new American security strategy for the twenty-first century. After a century in which aggression had to be defeated in two world wars and then deterred through a prolonged cold war, the authors argue for a strategy centered on prevention. Now that the cold war is over, it is necessary to rethink the risks to U.S. security. The A list--threats to U.S. survival--is empty today. The B list--the two major regional contingencies in the Persian Gulf and on the Korean peninsula that dominate Pentagon planning and budgeting--pose imminent threats to U.S. interests but not to survival. And the C list--such headline-grabbing places as Kosovo, Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda, and Haiti--includes important contingencies that indirectly affect U.S. security but do not directly threaten U.S. interests. Thus the United States is enjoying a period of unprecedented peace and influence; but foreign policy and defense leaders cannot afford to be complacent. The authors' preventive defense strategy concentrates on the dangers that, if mismanaged, have the potential to grow into true A-list threats to U.S. survival in the next century. These include Weimar Russia: failure to establish a self-respecting place for the new Russia in the post-cold war world, allowing it to descend into chaos, isolation, and aggression as Germany did after World War I; Loose Nukes: failure to reduce and secure the deadly legacy of the cold war--nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons in Russia and the rest of the former Soviet Union; A Rising China Turned Hostile: failure to shape China's rise to Asian superpower status so that it emerges as a partner rather than an adversary; Proliferation: spread of weapons of mass destruction; and Catastrophic Terrorism: increase in the scope and intensity of transnational terrorism.They also argue for better management of the defense establishment so the United States will retain a strong military prepared to cope with all contingencies, deter aggressors, and win a conflict if deterrence fails.

Preventive Defense: A New Security Strategy for America

Engineering & Transportation

Carter, Ashton B.

Engineering

Brookings Inst Pr

Book by Laqueur, Walter, Lewis, Bernard, Carter, Ashton, Deutch, John, Zelikow, Philip, Rose, Gideon, Rashid, Ahmed, Flynn, Stephen E., Stern, Jessica, Ajami, Fouad, Bearden, Milton, Perry, William J., Doran, Michael Scott, Betts, Richard K.

The New Terrorism: Threat And Response (Foreign Affairs Editors' Chioce Book Seies)

Politics & Social Sciences

LAQUEUR, Walter

Betts, Richard K.

Ajami, Fouad

Rashid, Ahmed

Stern, Jessica

Rose, Gideon

Bearden, Milton

Deutch, John

Flynn, Stephen E.

Zelikow, Philip

Carter, Ashton

Lewis,Bernard

Doran, Michael Scott

Social Sciences

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

In recent years, the dangers associated with nuclear weapons and the complexities of addressing these dangers have steadily grown. Relations with a nuclear-armed Russia could become adversarial. China's level of strategic development of nuclear technology remains unclear. Nuclear technologies are illicitly transferred through black markets. Equally important, new threats continue to grow from emerging nuclear states, such as Iran and North Korea, and from terrorist groups who may gain access to nuclear weapons. In this new and dangerous world, the United States must address and reassess its nuclear weapons policy.
Under the leadership of former secretary of defense William J. Perry and former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, an independent task force takes a fresh look at current U.S. nuclear doctrine and policy and determines the underlying purpose of America's nuclear weapons. Their report outlines a strategy for achieving the fundamental objectives of U.S. nuclear weapons through the skillful management of important political relationships and relevant amendments to policies on nonproliferation, arms control, nuclear terrorism prevention, securing nuclear weapons and weapons-usable materials, and ensuring crisis stability.

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy (Council on Foreign Relations (Council on Foreign Relations Press))

History

Ferguson, Charles D.

Scowcroft, Professor Brent

Military

Council on Foreign Relations Press

The President has the power to end the world in minutes. Right now, no one can stop him. Since the Truman administration, America has been one "push of a button" away from nuclear war--a decision that rests solely in the hands of the President. Without waiting for approval from Congress or even the Secretary of Defense, the President can unleash America's entire nuclear arsenal.&nbsp; Almost every governmental process is subject to institutional checks and balances. Why is potential nuclear annihilation the exception to the rule? For decades, glitches and slip-ups have threatened to trigger nuclear winter: misinformation, false alarms, hacked warning systems, or even an unstable President. And a new nuclear arms race has begun, threatening us all. At the height of the Cold War, Russia and the United States each built up arsenals exceeding 30,000 nuclear weapons, armed and ready to destroy each other--despite the fact that just a few hundred are necessary to end life on earth. From authors William J. Perry, Secretary of Defense in the Clinton administration and Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering in the Carter administration, and Tom Z. Collina, the Director of Policy at Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation in Washington, DC, The Button recounts the terrifying history of nuclear launch authority, from the faulty 46-cent microchip that nearly caused World War III to President Trump's tweet about his "much bigger & more powerful" button. Perry and Collina share their firsthand experience on the front lines of the nation's nuclear history and provide illuminating interviews with former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Congressman Adam Smith, Nobel Peace Prize winner Beatrice Fihn, senior Obama administration officials, and many others. Written in an accessible and authoritative voice, The Button reveals the shocking tales and sobering facts of nuclear executive authority throughout the atomic age, delivering a powerful condemnation against ever leaving explosive power this devastating under any one person's thumb.

The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump

Collina, Tom Z.

BenBella Books

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